POWER POINT PRESENTATION: ASSIGNMENT ON NCF & KCF

ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC: NCF AND KCF

SUBMITTED BY

SHYNI. L

PHYSICAL SCIENCE

REG. NO- 13304016

INTRODUCTION

A curriculum framework is an organized plan or set of standards or learning outcomes that defines the content to be learned in terms of clear, definable standards of what the student should know and be able to do.

A Curriculum Framework is part of an outcome-based education or standards based education reform design. The framework is the first step, defining clear, high standards which will be achieved by all students. The curriculum is then aligned to the standards, and students are assessed against the standards. As compared with traditional education which is concerned only about delivering content, a standards based education reform system promises that all will succeed if all are held to high expectations. When the standards are reached, there will be no achievement gap where some groups are allowed to score lower than others, or the disabled are offered different opportunities than others. All will meet world class standards and be qualified for good colleges and trained for good jobs which pay good wages. In a traditional education system, the curriculum was defined by those who created textbooks rather than government bodies which assembled groups of stakeholders to create standards based on consensus of what students should know and be able to do.

In some states, curriculum frameworks have been adopted based on traditional academic standards rather than outcome-based constructivist standards, but many frameworks were originally or still based on student-centered learning and constructivism such as reform mathematics, whole language and Inquiry-based Science which have been controversial in some states and communities. High school graduation examinations tie awarding of diplomas to demonstration of meeting the standards set out in the frameworks.

CONTENT

National Curriculum Framework (NCF 2005)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The National Curriculum Framework (NCF 2005) is one of four National Curriculum Frameworks published in 1975, 1988, 2000 and 2005 by the National Council of Educational Research and Training NCERT in India. The document provides the framework for making syllabii, textbooks and teaching practices within the school education programmes in India.

The NCF 2005 document draws its policy basis from earlier government reports on education as Learning Without Burden and National Policy of Education 1986-1992 and focus group discussion. After wide ranging deliberations 21 National Focus Group Position Papers have been developed under the agies of NCF-2005. The state of art position papers provided inputs for formulation of NCF-2005.

The document and its offshoot textbooks have come under different forms of reviews in the press. Its draft document came under the criticism from the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE). In February 2008 the director Krishna Kumar in an interview also discussed the challenges that are faced by the document.

The approach and recommendations of NCF-2005 are for the entire educational system. A number of its recommendations, for example, focus on rural schools. The syllabus and textbooks based on it are being used by all the CBSE schools, but NCF-based material is also being used in many State schools.

NCF 2005 has been translated into 22 languages and has influenced the syllabii in 17 States. The NCERT gave a grant of Rs.10 lakh to each State to promote NCF in the language of the State and to compare its current syllabus with the syllabus proposed, so that a plan for future reforms could be made. Several States have taken up this challenge. This exercise is being carried out with the involvement of State Councils for Educational Research and Training [SCERT] and District Institutes of Education and Training [DIET].

Main Features of the NCF 2005

The document is divided into 5 areas:

Perspective
Learning and Knowledge
Curriculum Areas, School Stages and Assessment
School and Classroom Environment
Systemic Reforms
Mother tongue as a medium of instructions.
free development
availability of resources

NCERT’s Science Curriculum

Contemporary pedagogic concerns
We have noted above that the current NCERT document takes note of the problems pointed out regarding the old curriculum and pedagogy, and often takes a liberal stance which may be at variance with the main ideological thrust of the document. This is evident in the section on curriculum load and perception of the child as a constructor of knowledge.
‘The heavy load of curriculum is not merely physical, but also one of non comprehension resulting from the lack of understanding of some basic concepts. This has been causing tremendous amount of stress and strain among students… The issue of curriculum load... cannot be wished away merely by downsizing the volume of the textbooks… One way to partly resolve the issue would be to take out the obsolete and redundant content… The load can also be reduced by removing the mismatch between the developmental capacities of children on the one hand and the curricular expectations and teaching and learning methods on the other. Undue emphasis on homework, the memorisation of a large number of facts, as also overlapping concepts and topics in the syllabi will have to be removed. There also has to be a shift from the ‘content’ to the ‘processes’ of learning. Teaching shall have to be geared to making students ‘learn how to learn’… The load can be taken off by innovating evaluation practices which test the abilities like comprehension, application and analysis ...
‘The acquisition of knowledge through active involvement with content, and not imitation of or memorisation of the material, is at the root of the construction of knowledge. In the constructivist setting, the learners have autonomy for their own learning, opportunities for peer collaboration and support, occasions for the learner generated problems that drive the curriculum, time for self observation and evaluation and outlets for reflection. Autonomy encourages learners to construct their own knowledge ... through hands on experiences rather than follow prescribed information. This perspective recognises the teacher as primarily a facilitator of learning...’ (p. 26)
‘The multiple intelligence approach offers the learners many opportunities to explore significant concepts and topics and to think about them on their own in many ways and to have many ways to make sense of what they find. The use of multiple intelligence in the curriculum provides for a variety of experiences that become the entry points into the lesson content and reach the learners in ways they can understand…’ (p. 28)
To a large measure the 1988 document was responsible for effectively increasing the curriculum load on children. This was both in terms of the volume of the syllabus at each stage and also the weight of information which could not be conveyed in any other manner except rote learning. Even though the question of increasing load had come up repeatedly by 1988, the document dismissed it. ‘The NCERT undertook a detailed study of the problem of curriculum load… The report indicated that the curriculum load was not so much of a problem of curriculum development as that of perception and management, accentuated by resource constraints.’ (NCERT 1988, p. 3) This gave licence to increasing the load even further. The NCERT of the 1980s and 1990s had veered towards a more information based curriculum where balanced presentation of information of all aspects was seen as being an indicator of political correctness. This forced a shift from skill development to information transmission and rote learning. Even the MLLs (minimum levels of learning) initiated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in the 1990s as a new thrust supposedly based on competencies, was largely expressed in terms of ability to recall packets of information.
The discussion on globalisation is again turned into an occasion for launching off into values that need to be inculcated in our children. While it is emphasised that the three Rs would continue to be the basic goals of education the need for certain attitudes and skills necessary for self-learning are to be inculcated. ‘develop capacity among students to acquire relevant knowledge and inculcate and interpret new values that will guarantee them the ability to remain up to date with the evolution of their environment...’ (p. 15)
Thus on the one hand there is a welcome concern to inculcate knowledge acquisition and processing skills (in place of imparting knowledge) there is at the same time a desire to maintain the inherited distinctions and identities which are threatened with erosion by globalisation. ‘the challenges created by globalisation for the educational processes would mean rethinking about the selection and delivery of educational content, integrating new sources of information, developing competence along with knowledge, adapting curricula to the needs of the different socio-cultural groups, and maintaining the national and social cohesion of the country.’ (ibid)
It is interesting that some of the fundamental premises of modern pedagogy are being rediscovered in the name of responding to the challenges of globalization and IT revolution. We are told in the latter context:
‘The teachers will become facilitators and libraries will be put to more and more use… This would result in a shift from the traditional learning atmosphere to climate of values that encourages exploration, problem solving and decision making and from prescriptive class room teaching to participatory decentralized interactive group learning. the traditional instructional methodology would give place to strategies that unify knowledge, the mastery of fixed body of knowledge to understanding of a web of interrelations between parts of a whole, the linear sequential reasoning to search for patterns and connections and the collection of information to the processing.’ (p. 16)
The reader may notice that this view of education is not very consistent with the emphasis on authority and wisdom of the ancestors and community and sectarian leaders discussed above. We may expect a tense relation between the two perspectives and it would be interesting to know how it is resolved by the NCERT. We will return to this rather important theme a little later.
The pedagogic perspective outlined in the 2000 document is thus a welcome shift. However a word of caution may be in order here. What should replace the information load in the curriculum? The document seems to emphasise a rather unstructured construction of knowledge by children. This would open the flood gates for all kinds of dubious content to be ‘constructed’. It should be realised that there is a need to go deeply into the substance of the disciplines concerned and define what needs to be taught in terms of the basic perspectives and methodologies of the disciplines. This will help us keep clear of both the culture of loading children with information packages and the anarchy of letting child construct their own knowledge and skill building without any content.

SCERT’s SCIENCE CURRICULUM

Science Education

The department of Science plays a key role to popularize Science in the State by conducting seminars, science exhibitions at various levels.
The department is meant for extending resource support to different institutions like IASEs / CTEs / DIETs and Schools. The department has got pivotal role in propagating scientific values, scientific attitudes and scientific temper particularly among the teachers and students and the community at large.
The department coordinates with other agencies working in the field of science and technology. As a part of the SCERT, the department of science acts as main academic advisory body in science through its functions like revision of syllabus, framing of curriculum and evaluation.

Aims and objectives:

* To organise in-service training for Physical Science teachers to enrich the subject.
* To organize trainings for Physical Science teachers in doing lab experiments.
* To provide ideas and information to keep the teachers abreast of the latest developments in the field of science.
* To undertake studies, investigations and surveys relating to science matters on the appraisal of education programmes.
* To undertake publication of modules, enrichment material, lab manual and book of projects etc.
* TTo undertake evaluation and research study and to find out the effectiveness of education programme in the state.

Functions of the science department:

Training programme for Secondary School teachers.

* To provide teachers of Secondary Schools with the latest and advanced information in the content and methodology of Science.
* To equip the teachers with skills involved in conducting experiments / activities.
* To develop teacher handbook and other teacher learning modules like manual of experiments, like etc.

Organization of District, State, South India Science Fairs

* To provide a platform to exhibit innovative projects for high school children.
* To promote scientific temper inquiring attitudes among student community.
* To exchange cultural relations and to develop brotherhood among National Level Educational Institutions and personnel.

Organization of District, State Science Seminars

* To inculcate in the minds of young students a spirit of scientific enquiry and analytical thinking.
* To a platform to the budding scientists for exchanging ideas.
* To nature a feeling national integration among young talents from every corner of Andhra Pradesh.
* To develop communicative skills among the students.